March 11, 2010

A US Airways flight was headed to Charlotte earlier this morning over the Empire State when they announced a bird strike, and were forced to make an emergency landing this morning. Rings a bell, no?

The flight, which left from Rochester, made the landing shortly after takeoff. Everyone’s safe, the bird is dead, and nobody’s found a way to connect this to Governor Paterson yet, though Attorney General Andrew Cuomo has yet to release a statement on or recuse himself from the matter, and talk regarding a forthcoming New York Times bombshell is for the moment unconfirmed. Furthermore:

There was no immediate information on the type or size of bird the plane hit.

Reports of airplanes hitting birds and other wildlife have soared in the year since a stricken US Airways jet landed in New York’s Hudson River. The government’s tally for last year could reach or even exceed 10,000 for the first time.

10,000 bird strikes. The danger still lurks, in the skies, waiting to squawk their terror into our hearts. That said, there’s silver-lining in every terrorist-housing cloud in the sky. For one thing, this kind of thing makes Al Qaeda look like Benny Hill. For another, at least we’re working on eradicating the important threats first.